Tuesday, September 28, 2010

CNN’s Right On The Edge

CNN Press Release:CNN’s Right on the Edge Documents the New Generation of Guerilla Journalists.

With a growing distrust of the mainstream media among young conservative activists, CNN takes an inside look at their new generation of guerilla journalists. Armed with video cameras and ideas, these young activists post their videos online to get their message directly to the public, bypassing the mainstream media. It’s the new wave of what they say is old-fashioned guerilla journalism.

CNN’s investigative correspondent Abbie Boudreau follows four rising stars in the conservative movement. They have changed the course of public debate and pushed the envelope of journalism. They are controversial and confrontational.

Right on the Edge debuts Saturday, Oct. 2 at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT) on CNN/U.S. The one-hour documentary profiles:

Lila Rose, an anti-abortion activist who goes under-cover at Planned Parenthood clinics around the country;

Christian Hartsock, a Hollywood video director whose work is layered with a conservative message;

Jason Mattera, confronts liberal lawmakers in the hallways of Congress and posts his videos online; and

Ryan Sorba, an anti-gay activist not afraid to stir up controversy.

There’s no singular leader of this new generation of activists going under-cover with video cameras, though James O’Keefe is well-known to the four activists and appears in some of their videos. He infamously dressed as a pimp, and along with another activist who pretended to be a prostitute, videotaped his own application for public assistance inside the community-organizing group ACORN. Earlier this year, two other activists posed as telephone repairman and entered Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu’s office while O’Keefe secretly videotaped it, which led to his arrest. His alleged plans of an under-cover video operation would reveal to CNN how far this movement is willing to push boundaries.

Scott Zamost is the senior producer for Right on the Edge. Bud Bultman is managing editor for CNN’s Special Investigations and Documentaries Unit. Scott Matthews is the executive producer.